Milton Map
Milton is a town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,598 at the 2010 census. A manufacturing, resort and residential town, Milton includes the village of Milton Mills. The primary village in town, where 575 people resided at the 2010 census, is defined as the Milton census-designated place (CDP), and is located along New Hampshire Route 125 and the Salmon Falls River, just north of Route 75.
Originally a part of Rochester variously called the "Northeast Parish", "Three Ponds" or "Milton Mills", the town was settled in 1760. It would be set off and incorporated in 1802 as "Milton", the name either a contraction of "mill town", or else derived from a relative of the Wentworth colonial governors -- William Fitzwilliam, Earl Fitzwilliam and Viscount Milton. The town of Fitzwilliam also bears his name.
Located along the Maine border, Milton was the location of early industry which used water power from the Salmon Falls River. Six miles north of Milton, the village of Milton Mills was once called "Shapleigh Mills" and during the 19th century had 4 shoe factories, 2 woolen mills, 1 felt mill, 1 carriage shop and many sawmills. In 1872, Henry H. Townsend established The Miltonia Mills, which manufactured fine wool blankets used by Admiral Robert E. Peary on his expedition to the North Pole, and Admiral Richard E. Byrd at the Antarctic. The company went bankrupt in 1950. The building then became Greene Tanning, a leather tannery where the employees of the mill made raw leather into leather known throughout the world as being some of the highest in quality.
Nearby cities include Sanbornville, Springvale, Sanford, Berwick, Somersworth.